Damian Marley to headlined Raggamuffin 2014

Four major international reggae acts feature in the line-up for the two-day reggae festival, Raggamuffin 2014.

The 2014 festival sees the return of reggae megastars with four major headliners – Damian Marley (youngest son of legend Bob Marley), Shaggy, Groundation and, for the first time in New Zealand, Morgan Heritage.

Raggamuffin 2014 takes place on Friday 31 January and Saturday 1 February 2014 at Rotorua International Stadium and this year, organisers have spread the headline acts across both days.

Raggamuffin 2014 is also supporting the charity Y for Youth, with a donation from every ticket sold going to help support New Zealand youth organisations.

Headlining the Festival is three-time Grammy Award winner DAMIAN MARLEY. Marley has been performing since his teens and has recorded six albums to date.

In 2009, he became the only Jamaican reggae artist in history to win two Grammy Awards on the same night (Best Reggae album and Best Urban/Alternative Performance for ‘Welcome to Jamrock’). Following his Raggamuffin performance, Damian Marley will be returning to the recording studio to record a new album.

Damian and his brothers Ziggy, Stephen and Julian Marley have established the record label Ghetto Youths International, and the family owned record label has been producing works by themselves and the next generation of reggae/hip hop artists. At Raggamuffin 2014 Damian Marley will be joined by three Ghetto Youths International artists – Christopher Ellis, Black-Am-I and Wayne Marshall – for an unforgettable two hour live experience.

Raggamuffin New Zealand Festival Director Jackie Sanders says bringing Damian Marley back to New Zealand for Raggamuffin 2014 takes the festival back to its reggae roots.

“It will be particularly special to have Damian performing in New Zealand in the week of his father’s birthday and marking 35 years since Bob Marley’s historic performance at Western Springs which really gave birth to the reggae movement in this country and was the inspiration for the movie Mt Zion.

“This will be the seventh Raggamuffin Festival in New Zealand and we’re very excited about the line-up this year with such strong international reggae headliners.”

Globally known as “the Royal Family of Reggae”, MORGAN HERITAGE is a reggae band comprised of five children of reggae artist Denroy Morgan. The band performs at Raggamuffin 2014 on their first ever visit to New Zealand.

Grammy Award-winning artist SHAGGY has been a force on the music scene since 1993 and with his eleventh album set for release in September 2013, he continues to make waves in the reggae music world – his 1995 single Boombastic has clocked more than 19 million YouTube views. Shaggy features at Raggamuffin as the headline act for Friday 31 January.

Established 15 years ago, California-based reggae band GROUNDATION has taken the music world by storm, capturing the essence and drive of roots reggae and blending elements of jazz, funk, salsa, fusion and dub.

Also featuring at Raggamuffin 2014 is Hawai’i reggae band Rebel SoulJahz and leading New Zealand reggae acts including Tiki Taane (acoustic/MC set with Optimus Gryme), House of Shem, Three Houses Down, Soljah, and Sons of Zion. More international and New Zealand artists will be announced later this year bringing the total line-up to 20 bands and DJs performing at the two-day festival.

Two-day tickets for Raggamuffin 2014 go on sale to subscribers for a special 24-hour price of $139* from 9am on Tuesday 24 September. Tickets are on sale to the general public for the early bird price of $159 from 9am Wednesday 25 September. An Ezy Pay option has been introduced for two day passes to spread the cost of the $159* ticket across five monthly instalments. Sign up as a subscriber at http://www.raggamuffin.co.nz . VIP, single day, group discount and family passes are also available. All tickets are available through Ticketmaster 0800 111 999 http://www.ticketmaster.co.nz